Audi’s pair of R18 e-tron quattro hybrids were the quickest cars around Sebring Raceway’s 17 turns Thursday night, lapping eight-tenths of a second quicker than the third-placed Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD.
Tom Kristensen in the #2 car was three-hundredths faster than Benôit Tréluyer in the 2012-vintage #1 R18. That the #2 ran at all was a testament to the excellence of the Audi organization. Allan McNish crashed heavily in Turn Ten in the morning session, damaging three corners of the car, and the Audi engineers had it back on track with ten minutes to go in the afternoon session.
Nick Heidfeld and Congfu Cheng in the #12 and #13 Rebellions were both bout three seconds off the pace of the Audis in the night session; it’s hard to figure what happened to these Lola Toyotas which were so quick earlier in the week.
A pair of IndyCar stars, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ryan Briscoe, were quickest in P2 in there pair of Level 5 HPDs. David Ostellar in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca topped the PC roster, and Olly Gaving and Jordan Taylor were quickest in GT in the #4 and #3 Corvettes.
Spencer Pumpelly in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche took top honors in GTC as he did in the morning session. Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #22 AJR Prsche was quickest in afternoon session.
The next practice session starts at 9:15 a.m. Friday, and ALMS qualifying starts at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the gate and at Sebring Raceway.com. Live Timing and Scoring is available at ALMS.com.
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